Writer | Editor

Guest Post by April Genevieve Tucholke: Inspiration for “The Flicker, The Fingers, The Beat, The Sigh”

I pushed myself last month to read a novel, a collection of short stories, and a novella to break myself out of a months-long reading slump. While finishing the books took a bit over a month, I read each of them, loved them, and have since waved that pesky reading desert wasteland goodbye. Yesterday, I talked about my thoughts on Armada(TL;DR: it was fun, but Ready Player One was soooo much better–if you’ve never read Ernest Cline, go for Ready Player One and just watch The Last Starfighter), and today I’m doing something a bit different to talk about the collection of short stories I read: Slasher Girls & Monster Boys. The book is a collection of short stories collected by April Genevieve Tucholke (who writes a short story herself), but each story has a bit of a twist. I’m so excited to get to be a part of the official blog tour for the book, and bring you a guest post from April herself!

When I first heard about this book, I saw that the publisher was lauding it as “A powerhouse anthology featuring some of the best thriller and horror writers in YA— for fans of Stephen King, Neil Gaiman, American Horror Story, and The Walking Dead.” I’ll be honest, that alone hooked me. I didn’t look any further into the book, and I requested a review copy. It wasn’t until after I received my copy of the book and started reading that I noticed that each story had an air of familiarity to it. If this collection was simply an anthology of short, scary stories, that would be great, but not entirely unique. What makes Slasher Girls & Monster Boys not only a great book, but a unique one is that each story was inspired by an existing work of literature, film, television–and the occasional Nirvana song (seriously). Even better, the author’s inspirations are revealed at the end of each story (at the bottom of the page and upside down to discourage cheating), so you can guess the work the author is referencing. Honestly, I loved this book. It was a fun, quick read, and the stories range from unsettling, to creepy, to downright scary. This book is DEFINITELY a must-have for any horror fan.

But enough of me talking.

I’m so happy to welcome April to my blog today for the official Slasher Girls & Monster Boys Blog Tour. She’s written a post–and peppered it with gifs since we’re all about the gifs up in here–talking about the inspiration behind her AMAZING short story in the collection, “The Flicker, The Fingers, The Beat, The Sigh”. Please welcome April to the blog, and be sure to pick up your copy of Slasher Girls & Monster Boys–it hits stores TODAY!

I drew from two inspirations for my Slasher Girls & Monster Boys short story—one iconic, and one not-so-iconic:

Inspiration 1:

It was inevitable that someone in this anthology would be inspired by Stephen King’s Carrie. I relate to the shy main character of this book/film, and I’ve always had a sympathetic twitch for the underdog, for the girl who is just a little bit different, for the girl who takes revenge.

Inspiration 2:

It’s not a classic, like Carrie, but I have a soft spot for I Know What You Did Last Summer—I absolutely love the scene with the four kids in the rain, screaming at each other, frantically trying to figure out what the hell they are going to do. I always try to put myself in their shoes–-seriously, what would you do if you were a senior in high school and you crashed into somebody on the side of the road? What if you’d been drinking? What if there was a good chance you could hide the body and get away with it?

I love pondering questions like these, so it was fun to force my characters to go through this kind of experience.

What are some of your favorite horror stories? Have they inspired you to write your own stories, make your own movies, or create your own art? Tell me about it in the comments. And grab yourself a copy of Slasher Girls & Monster Boys today!